Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-07-06
Misesllamepns &eadiug.
A GRAND JURY PRESENTMENT.

The following is a portion ofthe present
ment of the Abbeville grand jury at the
recent term of the Circuit Court of that
county:
We find the dockets of this Court are en-
numbered with many trivial and insignih-
can't cases, and we would recommend that
the laws in regard to stealing from the
field, and to petit larceny cases in general,
and to stealing live stock, and to all cases
of forgery, where the amount involved
does not exceed $40, be so modified as to
put all such cases within the jurisdiction
of trial justices, and that they be allowed
to sentence guilty offenders in all such
eases to the penitentiary for q term not 10
exceed one month for each 81 involved,
and that no such cases be tried in theC Cir
cult Court except on appeal, when errors
of trial justices might be corrected.
We find a source of complaint and OF
evil in the absurdities and in~congrultles
and abstruseness of a number of the statute
laws unwisely enacted in the past few
wears. AS interpreted by the Courts, they
work hardship and injury by prostratlng
and DESTROYING the credit of the people,
by fostering and encouraging fraud and
| dishor esty, and by furnishing a cloak and
| shield to tricksters and swindlers, while
they afford but little protection to upright
and fair dealing people, and thatlittlec costs
more than it is worth, if available at all /;
under these laws the meanest and most
systematic scoundrel may be a strictly
%law-abiding citizen while practicing his
schemes of knavery.
These laws are misleading and deceptive
in the extreme, and while they are fair IN
their exterior appearances, they contain in
disguise all the elements of discord and
wrong. They are calculated to decoy the
innocent and u~nsuspecting into the intri-
| cacies of plots and counterplots covered as
| snares in the coils of their real meaning,
and invisible except to the most learned
Judges and subtitle lawyers, and under their
different phases of legality all the intrigues
and Vaccinations of dishonesty are mace
right, while honest men are defrauded.
Therefore, the obligations of the people
to perform duties or to pay honest debts,
thus encountered with uncertainty are
county cannot be utilized for the want OF
means. We deem the credit of an enlight-
ened people, if properly protected and fos-
tered, to be worth more than their cash,
and if sustained and upheld by wise and
iudicious laws, requiring obligations to be
faithfully performed, is just as available
as cash: and if, instead of affording legal
clap-traps and technicalities for the eva.
ton of duty, they furnished a rigid rule OF
honesty and uprightness, the morals and
prosperity of the country would be pro-
NOTED, and men would be encouraged and
induced to prosper by fair rather thar by
foul means
Several laws have been enacted as make
shifts and subterfuges for the misfortunes
of the people, and their tendencies have
not been we'll considered, and as a conse-
| quence we have fallen into greater misfor-
| tunes than those sought to be remedied.
Their phraseology is utterly Incompetent
sible to ordinary men, and they prove to
| be calamities rather than blessings to the
| people. Therefore we recommend that the
legislature appointa committee of learned
men to remodel and simplify all such laws
now on the statute books and to give the
definition of each phrase and a synopsis of
! the entire law, all of which shall be pre-.
sented to the legislature to be re-enacted
| or repealed as in their judgment may ap-
pear best, after a full comprehension and
| understanding of the matter, and that this
| committee shall, in a like manner, define
and. give a synopsis of all laws before their
| final passage, and that the definition and
meaning of all laws thus enacted be final,
so that our laws may be practicable rules
| of action, rather than a stumbling block to
! tho noonln